Bars, much like restaurants, are in the business of serving their customers. On this level, bars and restaurants are almost identical. However, there are a few key differences between bar inventory and restaurant inventory; chief among these differences is the intricacies of the process.
Whereas restaurants must concern themselves extensively with different recipes and are forced to battle the shelf life of any given ingredient, bars have it a little bit easier. Sure, mixed drinks can occasionally become very complex, and require some different alcoholic and non-alcoholic ingredients, but generally, this doesn't hold a candle to the stocking and ordering menagerie that can sometimes exist in a busy restaurant. Most bars, when dealing with alcohol, don't need to pay nearly as much attention to things like expiration dates, since most booze is good for a pretty long time (notable exceptions being beer and some wines). In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, the bar inventory process is a much more interesting and unique one than you'd see in your average restaurant.
As such, the introduction of an inventory management system for a bar could very well make the difference between a clumsy, confusing, and otherwise stressful inventory process and a much more cohesive, efficient one. In this article, we're going to have a look at just a few of the ways that employing an effective bar inventory system can be of immense benefit to bars, specifically in ways different than it benefits restaurants. To do so, we will be using the example of Zip Inventory, Hubworks' inventory management app, to explain these benefits.